The start of Christmas shopping

I've started Christmas shopping, or at least having definite ideas of what I'm getting.

I swung by Trader Joe's after work for some cranberry goat cheese, bananas, and a box of these:

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There are 24 in the box and I think I'll be sharing these with my students on Friday.

I planned on giving these to one of the teachers, but I think I'll buy him some of Trader Joe's cat cookies since his checks say, "My cat understands me," and he doesn't have a cat. I was also thinking of a hat rack that he's been meaning to get for a sign he has that says Hats off, but I'm not quite sure on that one.

I ordered "Moon" for the science teacher and have to think of something for the math teacher. For the special ed secretary, I may get her a pair of good scissors since she lost them.

My cousin and I stopped by Mangiamo's new gelato caffe and used a 2 for 1 coupon to get him and his sister some gelato. The pistachio I tasted was fantastic. My cousin ordered fruit sorbettos and his sis got mint choc chip and strawberries & cream.

All afternoon I wasn't hungry. Strange since I only had an egg-rito for lunch. My egg-rito included hummus instead of black bean dip & pineapple salsa this time.

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I ate some almonds, but that was it. Mom and I went shopping until I decided on a bowl of oatmeal (cranberry-ginger), a green juice, and an apple.

Shopping today was eventful. I bought another pair of TekGear workout capris from Kohl's with my $10 off coupon. The pants were 60% off so I paid a total of $2.16.

World Market consumed a ton of our time. My assistant manager/mom of one of my kids has a birthday on Monday and tomorrow is the last day I'll see her before then. I bought her a pretty tin of dark chocolate sea salt caramel bark, or something like that.

My next stop is Costco tomorrow where I'll attempt to buy some more gifts before I try Target. Maybe I can find a decent gingerbread house. So far, I haven't found an exceptionally cool one I'd like to buy for us to make. :/

Last year, I made 2 gingerbread houses: a pre-fab one and mid-century modern one. My pre-fab one was made with graham crackers, but I made the gingerbread for the latter. They turned out nice, but this year, I'd like to buy and construct one with my little cousin. Of course, my standards are too high from last year and because of all the amazing gingerbread houses out there:

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